Newly elected MP of Burdwan Durgapur Lok Sabha seat, Kirti Azad has written a letter to chairman of Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC), S Suresh Kumar urging him not to proceed further with the eviction programme for the proposed Durgapur Thermal Power station modernization project unless the home losers are rehabilitated. He has threatened a bigger agitation if the plan is executed.

Power sector behemoth, Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) has planned to set up an 800 MW supercritical unit in Durgapur Thermal Power Station (DTPS) at an estimated cost of Rs 8,000 crore. For setting up the expansion project, DTPS needs to vacate the encroachments in Mayabazar and DTPS Colony areas of Durgapur.

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The electricity and water connection have been snapped and the residents have been issued notices to vacate. Protesting these steps by DVC, the encroachers have started agitation since the last nine months, under the banner of Bhoomi Ucched Protirokkha Committee.

Since 1 June this year, about 170 slum dwellers have started fasting near the Durgapur Thermal Power Station. The newly elected MP, hearing their protest, lent them moral support, but the agitators wanted a personal visit of Kirti Azad at the fasting venue.

Both Kirti Azad and Pradip Mazumdar, state panchayat minister, plan to meet with the agitators shortly and have urged them to withdraw their agitation. “I have urged the chairman of DVC in a letter that nobody should be evacuated without giving proper rehabilitation. The company has snapped the water and power connections. It is inhumane. The huge investment of DVC is welcome in my Lok Sabha area, it will change the socio-economic scenario of the region and generate employment opportunities for the locals, but at the same time it also has to be assured these people would be rehabilitated,” said Kirti Azad.

Both DTPS and DSP will undergo expansion shortly and have issued notifications to evacuate the encroachers from their lands in Durgapur. The encroachers have started agitation on both sides demanding rehabilitation.

Chief minister Miss Mamata Banerjee is against forcible land acquisitions in the state and due her severe agitation in Singur and Nandigram, the 34 years Left Front regime in the state ended. However, in both the cases, the lands belonged to the two central public sector units but have been encroached for decades in Durgapur.